Conservative Income Feature

After a decade as the primary focus of utility M&A, regulated assets don’t come cheap. But when a high flyer drops back to a good entry point, we jump. And that’s now the case for natural gas distributor South Jersey Industries (NYSE: SJI).

Sustainability worries about North American shale oil and gas production, governance concerns and an ugly half-decade of dividend cuts convinced many investors to flee the midstream energy sector and never look back.

Outside of regulated utilities, no group of companies has demonstrated greater long-term resilience than super oils like Top 10 DRIP Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX). That’s still true despite what many consider their greatest challenge yet: Global decarbonization.

Over the past 15 years, Conservative Holding Pembina Pipeline Corp (TSX: PPL, NYSE: PBA) has endured two wholesale depressions in Alberta’s energy patch—and the Canadian government’s death sentence on its former income trust structure.

In summer 2013, Exelon Corp (NYSE: EXC) cut its quarterly payout from 52.5 cents to 31 cents per share. The 41 percent reduction was a tacit admission that no US carbon tax would save the nation’s largest nuclear power fleet from falling wholesale electricity prices.

Communications has been a tough business throughout North America for years. But Conservative Holding BCE Inc (TSX: BCE, NYSE: BCE) has consistently gained revenue and market share. The company today operates Canada’s Best in class network on the verge of 5-G adoption.

From its humble beginnings as the old Southwestern Bell, AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) emerged from the competitive free-for-all following 1996 deregulation as one of America’s big two telecoms. And revenues, earnings and dividends have risen consistently ever since.

Conservative Holding Algonquin Power & Utilities (TSX: AQN, NYSE: AQN) has roughly $5 billion in market capitalization. It’s sparsely represented in indexes and individual investors hold nearly half the float. The result is few US-based analysts cover the stock, despite the fact that US operations generated 95 percent of the company’s 2018 revenue.

There’s no faster way to grow a business than by making acquisitions. The trick few master is finding deals with upside from simply following core competencies, and made at the right price. But neither has been a problem for Conservative Holding Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners (TSX: BEP-U, NYSE: BEP).

TransCanada Corp (TSX: TRP, NYSE: TRP) has long been synonymous with the delayed north leg of the Keystone XL pipeline. Earlier this decade, the project to deliver Alberta oil to the US Gulf Coast seemed a sure thing. Then it became the one pipeline the Obama Administration rejected, only to be revived by the Trump Administration.